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Lunenburg's Nash wins Junior title

Sentinel & Enterprise

Updated:
08/09/2017 12:03:01 PM EDT

Lunenburg High School student Emily Nash, 16, poses after winning the WGAM Junior Amateur Championship title at South Shore Country Club in Hingham on Tuesday.
COURTESY PHOTO / MASSACHUSETTS GOLF ASSOCIATION

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Submitted report

HINGHAM -- Coming off an impressive first round that saw her enter the final day atop the leaderboard, 16-year-old Emily Nash, of Lunenburg, shot an 8-over-par 80, then defeated Anne Walsh (The Country Club) in a one-hole playoff at South Shore Country Club to claim the 87th WGAM Junior Amateur Championship title on Tuesday.

Picking up her first victory in the Championship flight of the annual mid-summer tournament, which has been hosted by the WGAM dating back to 1930, Nash adds to a résumé that includes multiple victories in various tournaments across the country.

"When I was younger, I always wanted to win this tournament.

As a 14-year-old freshman, Lunenburg High School's Emily Nash poses at the Mid-Wach C league championship golf tournament at The International in Bolton on Oct. 14, 2014. Now 16, Nash is piling up an impressive collection of tournament victories. SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE FILE PHOTO

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I was in the Silver Flight three years ago and I ended up winning that one, but my goal was always to win the Championship flight," said Nash, who holds her handicap index out of Settlers Crossing Golf Course in Lunenburg. "I made it interesting (down the stretch), but it's really big to me. It's cool to be a state champion."

After finishing her second round on Tuesday at 8-over par, Nash, a rising junior at Lunenburg High School, finished tied atop the leaderboard with Anne Walsh, a rising sophomore at Boston Latin High School. Walsh shot 5-over 77 on Tuesday and, with her 79 mark from Monday, had a matching 12-over-par 156 score following the 36 holes of regulation play to force a playoff.

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It didn't take long, though, in extra holes as Nash got her groove back, making par on the first hole of the playoff, South Shore Country Club's par-4 first hole, to seal the victory.

"The front nine I shot 1-over and I was actually playing really well," said Nash, who competes on the Lunenburg High School boys' golf team and has consistently been the team's top player. "Especially my driver, which was going right down the middle.

"On the back nine, my swing got a little rough and I started (missing) fairways and stuff like that toward the back. I think I got two doubles and I just wasn't playing that great, so I kind of gave a lot of the strokes back."

Even if she gave a couple strokes back, the end result didn't matter.

After ending Monday's first round with a birdie on the par-5 18th hole to finish at 4-over-par 76, Nash picked right up where she left off on Tuesday morning by tallying a birdie on the second hole of the day, allowing her to make the turn at 1-over-par 37.

On the back half of Tuesday's round, she finished at 7-over-par 43 with double bogeys on holes 14 and 16. She did make par on 10 of the holes to go along with her one birdie.

Last week in the Massachusetts Women's Amateur Championship at Myopia Hunt Club in Hamilton, Nash finished tied for 23rd in the stroke-play portion of the tournament before advancing to the Round of 32 in the Championship flight of the match-play competition. Playing against a field much older than her last week prepared Nash for this week's Championship.

"I feel like it helped with the pressure aspects, especially match play, because you have to make every shot," explained Nash, who also earned a victory earlier this season at the Future Collegian World Tour Golf Tournament at Red Tail Golf Club in Devens, a two-day tournament that featured top competitors from across the country and Canada. "That definitely helped with the playoff. I kind of went into the mindset that I was kind of in match play against Anne and it seemed to have helped a lot."

Last year, Nash finished fifth overall in the two-day tournament with a score of 168 behind champion Angela Garvin, of Feeding Hills. Garvin is competing this week at the US Women's Amateur Championship at San Diego Country Club.

In addition to winning Tuesday's Massachusetts Girls Junior Amateur Championship, Nash placed fifth in the Amino VITAL Junior Championship at Treyburn Country Club in Durham, N.C., which ran from July 17-20. At the 2017 MIAA Division 1 State Championship in the spring, Nash finished fourth behind Gabrielle Sheih (Concord Carlisle High School), Walsh and Kaitlynn Washburn (Scituate High School).

Nash also competes in various other AJGA tournaments, the US Challenge Cup events and occasional NEPGA Tour events.

Also on Tuesday, Samantha Leary of Hingham, who competes on the NEPGA Junior Tour, was victorious in the Silver Flight of the Girls Junior Amateur Championship, finishing at 16-over-par 168 for the two-day tournament. She will be attending Assumption College in the fall where she will play golf.

Eleanor Parkerson won the Junior-Junior Division, which featured competitors ages 13 and under, with a two-day, 18-hole score of 2-over-par 74, while Champa Visetin, of Randolph, was the winner of the Mites Division, which saw competitors ages 10 and under face off. Visetin totaled a two-day, 18-hole score of 2-over-par 74.

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